Child car seats, also known as child restraint seats, are provided in many sizes and configurations. Generally, conventional car seats are “grown out of” in relatively short periods, and thus need to be replaced at various milestones in the physical development of the child. As the child grows, he or she graduates to a car seat configured to accommodate the child's increased height and weight. Although the growth rate of children varies widely, even with the slowest growing children, replacement of the car seat becomes necessary before the end of the car seat life expectancy.
While the child is an infant, the parent must place the child in a rearwardly facing infant car seat for vehicular travel. The infant car seat needs to be designed to support an infant, who is not able to support him or her self, thereby allowing the infant, who cannot sit up on its own, to lie or recline in the seat. Once the child is able to sit upright, the infant seat must be replaced by a toddler-sized seat. The toddler-sized seat provides a forward-facing and slightly reclined seating environment for the toddler. The toddler seat is secured to the rear seat of the vehicle and typically includes a harness to secure the toddler within the seat. Eventually, however, the child outgrows the toddler-sized seat and progresses to a youth-sized seat. The youth-sized seat can accommodate children over 40 lbs. and functions primarily as a booster seat.
Child car seats must be replaced relatively frequently to accommodate the relatively fast growth rate of children—increasing height, weight, and needs of the child. Additionally, parents and other adults often must care for several children who do not fit within the same seat model. In this instance, the parents must buy two or more seats to accommodate their various-sized children.
One child car seat that has attempted to accommodate growing children is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,735, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. The disclosed child car seat is suited for accommodating both toddlers (e.g., 20-40 lbs.) and older children (e.g., 40-80 lbs.) who are not yet large enough to use vehicle seatbelts. A parent of a toddler can thus adjust the car seat as the child grows, rather than buy a new car seat of a bigger size. To achieve this versatility, the child car seat of U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,735 includes armrests that may be vertically adjusted between a first, upper position and a second, lower position. In a typical toddler configuration, the armrests are placed in the upper position, and, in a configuration suitable for a larger child, the armrests can be adjusted to the lower position. In addition, a platform to recline the car seat of U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,735 is arranged below the base by a pivoting connection. The base is pivotal between first and second positions relative to the platform. The child car seat also includes a harness removably mounted to the seat body through grommets located in the base and the seat back. As the child grows, the harness can be relocated to different grommet pairs. For example, for a larger child, the harness can be positioned in grommets located more forwardly on the base and higher on the seat back. As the child surpasses 40 lbs., the harness is omitted completely, and the lap/shoulder belt of the vehicle can be used to secure the child to the car seat. The child car seat can also include a head support removably mounted to the seat back. Once the child has grown past the toddler stage, the head support cushion can be removed from the seat back.
The features of the child car seat described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,735, including the adjustable armrests, the adjustable harness, and the removable head support cushion, all increase the versatility of this child car seat as compared to non-adjustable child car seats. Nonetheless, there is a need for an improved versatile car seat that can accommodate various child sizes. The present invention addresses this need.